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At the end of the Clavicus Vile shrine quest what did you do did you hand over Umbra to get the mask of Clavicus Vile or did you keep Umbra and [&@%!] Clavicus Vile off?

I would keep umbra personally as it is one of the best swords in the game without DLC. You can get a better sword in Shivering isles and one more in Cyrodiil but other than that its one of the best. Hope this helped

Edit: Damn autocorrect

umbra. the masque only fortifies personality 30 points, you get a 25 point personality and luck boost from the dragon statue at end of main campaign and it literally lasts hours, or just use cheap charm spells to make them like you long enough to get what you need from them, or use both.

Personally, I kept the Masque, but that's because
a) I decorate, and to do this, I hoard anything remotely unique looking. The Masque is very unique-looking
and
b) I'm an archer and a fancy sword does me no good cuz I ignore my blade skill.

That's just my input. However, if you do use a sword, go for Umbra.

I sell the Masque, which means I give up the sword.

On the first point, the Masque is useless. On the second point, the sword is useless.

Umbra is cursed with an annoyingly inconvenient Soul Trap enchantment where the first strike lasts for an entire two minutes.

If you can't kill the first thing that crosses your path within the next two minutes, nothing that Umbra brings to the fight is going save you. And the only thing Umbra brings to the fight is physical damage.

Umbra is a paradox: sure, you may be attracted by its sinister appearance and high base damage, but there is nothing in the weapon which makes it the end-all solution to deadifying your most annoying pests formidable foes.

The sword is useless, so I return it for the Masque. It makes a nice relic atop of my bookshelf.

THE SWORD! Sure it's not the best, but it's still the one I carry and fight with. It's the best looking sword in the game in my opinion. I like to feed it souls! It needs souls! More souls for Umbra!... anyway it also has highest base damage so if it runs out of charge it still does more damage then most magical swords in the game.

To quote the god himself "A pitiful sword with a pitiful soul in exchange for a mask fit for the gods."

I always go for the sword. It is not the best sword in the game but still it is pretty good. They both have rather poor enchantments at the end of the day so I just grab Umbra at level 1 to use it for the early levels. Then when I do the quest I leave it back at my house and put it on display.

i usually go for the sword, it is my favourite weapon in the game. There are other 1 handed weapons which are better damage wise, but none look as cool imo and the 120 second soul trap is mega useful and unique

The sword cause it is UMBRA . I must say I liked the Orc Umbra more than the oblivion umbra.

Yes the swords enchantment is not very usefull most of the time, but Umbra makes a great weapon if you don't want to ever recharge your weapon. And it one of the best looking weapons ingame. Even for decoration it beats the ugly mask.

Umbra Shmumbra.

Returning Umbra where it belongs earns you the Masque of Clavicus Vile. It actually is an excellent deal. The mask is essentially useless, making it the perfect Artifact to surrender to Martin in the main quest line.

Personally, I don't want some high-damage relic as a crutch to make it through the game. It's actually more fun and challenging to think and work through the game with a fair share of vulnerability. Any damn fool can crush a bug with a powerful weapon. It takes a talented gamer to kill a powerful foe with a spatula.

Perhaps, although Umbra is hardly one of the game breaking weapons, if any exist, aside from the drain health weakness to magic 100% for 2 sec dagger kinda thing, but that's a custom enchantment.

There are game breaking things that make it very boring if exploited too much, like 100% chameleon or duping glitch, but overleveling and destroying enemies with crazy spells and weapons that you worked hard for isn't all bad, especially since it seems goblins are about 50 levels higher than you sometimes.

My friend is like you though, he was under the impression one should play through final fantasy trying to beat it as low of a level as possible. This did make some sense, however, I was just never the type of person who would do "3 heart runs" on zelda games and such. Also, there was no gaurentee being the lowest level would be more satisfying. In fact, often in FF, it'd be hundreds of game over screens, not much better than "grinding".

I (and many others) play through FF games getting the ultimate weapons and grinding for exp to go super saiyan. It's just really satisfying to see all that hard work one shot the enemy eventually. However, games like FF do it well, because no matter what lvl 99 ultimate weapon characters you have, there's always a bigger fish (omega bosses and such).

So I can see your point of view, but I also enjoy the other side as well.

Anyway, a big rant cause I can't get to sleep, but on topic, I think i'm leaning towards umbra, unless I see the mask looks amazing (will check now) ...
...

That is tempting, what does it look like on? Like you're wearing a mask?? Is that the only item in the game that complete covers your face? How does the guy even breathe? Looks very unique though, especially if no other item covers your face.

The Masque makes you look like a constipated conquistador.

Actually, that may come in handy for the roleplayers.

Wait wait... you can get it at level 1? I thought you had the be 18 to start the quest? Is Umbra(the person) down there at level 1?

Umbra is always there however, at level 1 it is almost impossible to kill her^^.

lol

i did it once at 3rd level, basically by hopping up on top of the broken pillar above her bed and throwing everything at her. She regenerates ( ) so you will need a few hundred arrows, 3 or 4 spare bows (i got a black bow very early on and they are really good at low level) - remember you cannot repair. I also had the starting destruction zap spell (10 points or something), and i was a dunmer so i had my ancestral guardian which hit her once and was then instantly killed. One big factor if you do it this way is how high your marksman is, you'll probably need to max it out if you want to take her on at first level since you're dealing with so many arrows worth of damage. The wiki talks about luring her into the poison trap elsewhere in the dungeon, or getting outside onto your trusty steed and leading her to guards who will finish her off, but she runs so fast i couldnt get anywhere so had to pincushion her

i didn't have the patience to do it at 1st level, it took me over an hour as it is at 3rd (marksman could have been higher)

i found having umbra at 3rd level unbalanced the game (i was playing a 'serious' character and not trying to use any exploits) cos it's a quest item and weighs zero which means its amazing, so i reloaded my character from before the umbra with the knowledge he could take her out if he wanted to

I did her last time with my lvl 15 mage ( around 90 destruction) and without 85 armor she would have killed me with two hits^^. And it took a few minutes to finish her off, a really hard fight. But maybe OOO tuned her a bit up. However in a meele fight i doubt she could be killed at level 1 without console/cheating or having difficult at lowest. If you use advantage of traps, guards or areas she can't reach and kill her with bow/magic than it is possible, but time consuming.

Having Umbra at level 1 is clearly nearly gamebraking, but it was never intended to have it at this level, as the quest is level 20 and at this level you could also get goldbrand which is much better.

I chose Umbra. It is the best sword in the game, and the mask of Clavicus Vile is not particularly useful, or aesthetically nice as a helmet. You can annoy Clavicus vile, and it still counts as completing the quest, so you can still do the final shrine.

The Masque's incredibly ugly and the bonus is useless really. I go for the sword for a number of reasons:

Highest One-Handed base damage.
It looks great.
Overkill Soul Trap enchantment with plenty of uses and a small charge. Great when used in combination with Azura's Star to restore it's own charge and the charge of all other enchanted weapons you've got with you.

Dude the Umbra is literally the most powerful weapon in the game so I would say that

the masque can look cool with some types of armour though, i used it for a while with blades armour or my black robe - if you want a character a bit like the Necromonger dude in Riddick 2, could be a good choice

they are both unique items and can be used to make your character look smarter. Also, Umbra is an evil sword, so that might make some minds up right there (created by the witch Naenra Waer who was executed for her troubles)

Going for the mask. This playthrough is going for 100% completion so I need every Daedric artifact.

Putting daedric stuff in Display cases and around your house also looks really cool so no Umbra for me this time

Meh. The base damage means nothing if I can get more damage per strike with an enchantment that actually does damage and has a more practical soul trap effect. Of course, the mask isn't much better, but I usually use it for the main quest.

The masque looks really nice in Rosethorn Hall, on the desk, btw.